They emerge from the stuffy registrar’s office into the cool, end-ofyear air outside. Photographs are taken. There’s a wedding brunch at home. As soon as they get home, Ashesh and Janaki touch Shekhar’s mother’s feet. She showers generous blessings on them. Sharada arrives. She and Anima remove the cover of the tanpura and proudly present it to Janaki on behalf of all the friends. Janaki looks at Ashesh with tears in her eyes. She mentioned a tanpura only once to him. But he has remembered. She doesn’t know what to say. So she asks a pedestrian question. ‘Who got it? From where?’ Anima has been waiting to tell everybody the tale of the tanpura. Before she begins the last guest arrives. Shekhar. He has taken a little time off from work.

Anima begins the story. ‘Sharada knows a tanpura maker in Miraj. They call him Aba. He visits Mumbai once in a while to deliver orders. Sharada calls him to ask if he has an instrument ready. At first he says no. Then he says yes, but adds he wouldn’t advise her to buy it and he will certainly not bring it to Mumbai. Sharada asks him why. He says there’s a curse on it, that’s why. Sharada covers the mouthpiece and says to me, “Do we give Janaki a cursed tanpura?” I say ask him if it plays. He says it’s a beauty to look at and listen to. So Sharada says, “It’ll do for us. A friend of mine will come to pick it up.” He says first hear about the curse then let her come if she still wants to. Sharada says he can tell her the story when she gets there.

‘I leave on a Friday night. The next day is my students’ Saturday. I ask them if they want to join me to see the nuts and bolts of music making. They are thrilled. We take the night train, reach Miraj in the morning, wash, have our breakfast and go to Aba’s workshop. It is a fascinating place full of the aroma of wood. Aba stares at us and refuses to show us the tanpura. “First listen to the tale of the curse,” he says, “then I’ll show you the instrument.”

‘And so begins the story of the curse. A German student of Hindustani music, Hans Engelbert, ordered a tanpura from Aba. The man who was to take it to Mumbai lost his wife unexpectedly so he couldn’t go. Engelbert decided to come to Miraj himself to fetch it. While he slept on the train, his luggage got stolen. He arrived in Miraj minus passport, credit card and the money he had set aside for the tanpura. He borrowed money from Aba to return to Mumbai empty-handed. He didn’t want to buy the tanpura on credit. He told Aba to sell it off.